Cade Lucas
Wyndham deputy mayor Josh Gilligan has called for council to redistribute funding set aside in its draft 2024-25 budget for a road widening project in Little River, labelling the budget allocation as ‘reckless’.
The draft budget received unanimous support a meeting of Wyndham council on Tuesday, April 23 and is now on public display until May 25.
Cr Gilligan said a Little River road widening project of up to $26 to $28 million had been included in the draft budget.
“This is a suburb [Little River] that pays about $800,000 in rates and councillors are recklessly voting for a road widening project of an amount up to $26 to $28 million,” he said.
“This is a project I will not support in the final round when this does come back and that is money that should be redistributed because that is … entirely funded on debt that people in Truganina, Tarneit, need to pay for.
“Not a single officer in this council operation has provided me with a business case that shows the cost benefit of delivery of widening this road.
“Shut down the amount of roads that exist along Little River that are unsustainable because there are very few roads in and out of Point Cook, Tarneit and Truganina.”
Council is planning to spend $164 million in capital works over the next financial year, according to the draft budget.
A budgeted operating surplus of $245.7 million is proposed for 2024-25, which includes subdivision assets, developer contributions and capital grants.
The underlying result excluding assets, contributions and grants is a surplus of $102 million, but once depreciation and amortisation totalling $130 million is factored in, the budget has an underlying deficit of $28 million.
An increase in rates is consistent with the average 2.75 per cent rate cap set by the state government, while other user fees and charges will generally rise by four per cent in keeping with CPI.
The capital works budget of $164 million includes $58 million for recreational, leisure and community facilities, $52 million for roads, $13 million for parks, open space and streetscapes and another $13 million for property, such as land improvements and heritage buildings.
After receiving legal advice, council is proposing to use some of the near $40 million in legacy developer contributions for Point Cook on the Jamieson Way Masterplan Implementation stage one and two allocating $750,000 and $5 million respectively.
Council currently owes $15 million in external borrowings.
Councillor Mia Shaw said some older suburbs such as Hoppers Crossing and parts of Werribee and Wyndham Vale were being neglected while money is spent on growth areas, pointed to drainage works at K Road cliffs as an example.
“This is a $24 million project and only $800,000 has been allocated this upcoming financial year,” Cr Shaw told the chamber.
“I’ll be frank it was originally going to be zero, it was going to come into the budget on allocations and I have had to fight hard to get the budget allocated for this project to start.”
The 2024-25 budget will return to council for a final vote on June 25.
